Methods of preparing master copies for hectographic printing



United States Patent 7 2,733,727 METHODSVOF-PREPARI NG MASTER COPIES FOR I i. 'HECTOGRAPHIC PRINTING Stanley Dorman, Monkseaton, Northumberland, and Alv.fred Anderson, London, England, assignors to Block Anderson Limited, London, England, a British coni- P y No Drawing. Application May 7, 1952,. Serial No. 286,622

Claims priority, application Great Britain May 7, 1951 4 Claims. v o1. Jill-149.4)

, shading and so on and as regards total charge of ink so that substantially equal numbers of hectographic copies can be made from each master.

Broadly, in the method accordingto the invention an ink selective image of the original is first obtained'by any 2,738,727 Patented Mar. 20, 1 956 "Ice mal true-to-scale printing. The sheet is then removed and i is suitable for subsequent use as a rectographic master suitable means, e; g; from a contrast transparency, upon a suitable receptive printing surface, such as a ferrogelatine or like surface, or upon a lithographic stone or other similar planar printing surface, and this image is then eitherinked up with hectographic ink for subsequent pulling-off of a master copy therefrom or is treated with an adhesive ink for pulling off therefrom a copy having an adhesive image suitable for attracting and holding a considerable charge ofhectogr'aphicink when pressed into contact with a sheet of hectographic carbon paper, which copy, by reason of the quantity of ink thus transferred, may be used as a master'eepy in a normal hectographic printing process, e. g. one in'which thedeposited' ink of the master copy is 'a spirit soluble aniline dye composition from which subsequent copies are obtained !by.contact therewith of a sheet which has been previously moistened with a suitable, e. g. methylated, spirit.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood a number of different embodiments thereof will now be described in greater detail by way of illustrative example:

In one preferred method an undeveloped blueprint is first prepared ofthe matter required to form the subsequent master copy. This blue print is conveniently made from a tracing or other transparency having as good a contrast as possible and is arranged, by suitable orientation with respectto such transparency, to be reversed as compared with a normal blue print for direct reading. The blue-print, still in undeveloped form, is then applied to the normal ferro-gelatine surface of the so-called trueto-scale or Dorel Freres process table'and is allowed to remain thereon for the usual action time required for the blue-print to affect the gelatine surface. The blue-print is then removed from the gelatine surface. The ink-receptive image on the gelatine surface formed by the unexposed or image regions of the blue-print is then inked rolled on in a manner similar to that employed with nor-' maintained for a suitable period of time,

sheet with its image in adhesive copy.

In another method the same initial steps up to and including that-of ravin the'blue-print upon and. later removing it from the gelatine surface'are repeated. The ink-receptive image oii th e gelatine surface is then rolled up with an adhesive'fiuid material of water repellent char acter, for example, lithographic ink, and then a sheet of hectograph carbon'paperis laid, carbon face downwards upon the-preparedimage surface and rolled on. The carbon paper-sheetis th'en stripped off whereupon'it has been found that a large production of the carbon deposit of the hectographic carbon paper opposite the image .regions is transferred from such paper to such image .regions. A sheet of suitable master forming paper is then laid on t'he inked-up image, rolled on and then removed including'that of laying the blue-print upon and later iremoving it from the gelatine surface are repeated. The

ink-receptive image on the gelatine surface is then rolled up with an adhesive fluid material of water repellant character, for example, lithographic ink or letterpress ink and then the sheet of fart surfaced paper is laid upon the prepared image surface and rolled on. The paper sheet is then stripped olf the gelatine after the manner of a normal print whereupon its image bearing surface is laid in contact with the coated side of a sheet of hectographic carbon paper and heavy pressure applied to press the two elements into intimate contact. This pressure is v which may vary from minutes to a number of hours accordingto the character of the materials of the image and thepressure employed. The carbon :paper is then stripped from the art surfaced paper sheet." By a suitable adjustment of conditions it can bej-a'rranged that-substantially all of the carbon deposit of the hectographic carbon paper overlying the image regions of the art paper sheet is transferred to the latter. i

In yet another-slightlymodified method the steps of the last described method are repeated up to and including that of s'tripping the art sur faced paper sheet from the adhesive inked "gelatine surface; This art surfaced paper ink is then dusted with rectographic ink powder "which, bya'dherence to the image regions, converts the sheet into a master of the required form.

in a further modified method the contrast transparency is first used to obtain the required ink-receptive image upon a lithographic printing surface. This image is then rolled up in the customary manner with lithographic ink and then overlaid with a sheet of hectographic carbon paper which, after rolling on, is removed prior to the application of the sheet of master-forming paper. Alternatively, inking-up of the ink-receptive image may be eifected with a viscous hectographic ink.

In another alternative the ink receptive image may be rolled-up with an adhesive ink followed by the rolling on of the requisite sheet of master paper to obtain an 7 adhesive-image print which is either brought into heavy pressure contact with a sheet of hectographic carbon paper or is dusted with hectographic ink powder as de- The lithographic printing surface may be constituted by the known forms of lithographic stone, zinc sheet or other types of lithographic printing surface. The required image may be provided in any of the ordinary ways, e. g. from a photo-litho transfer prepared photographically from the original copy or by handwriting or drawing on the stone or other lithographic printing surface.

in In another alternative, the silk screen or wax stencil method using an adhesive ink may be employed to provide the primary ink receptive image from which the master is subsequently obtained. 1

The basic method of the present invention, apart from having the advantage of not essentially requiring retyping of any printed or other matter or the hand reproduction of existing images, has the further advantage that a plurality of master copies may be obtained from the single gelatine or other printing surface image by the customary process of reinking the image between each pull therefrom.

By the use of the invention the reproduction of medium numbers of copies and the reviving of old masters for repetitive use or production of a small number of mirror printed masters is much facilitated and cheapened While allowing very largely the use of existing plant or machinery without material modifications.

We claim:

1. The method of preparing a paper master sheet suitable for hectographic printing by the spirit copying process said method including the steps of forming upon an ink-repellent surface an ink-selective image of the matter to be printed, rolling on to said image surface an adhesive fluid material to cover only said ink-selective image, pressing against said adhesive-covered image a sheet of paper having a heavily loaded and calendered surface to transfer an adhesive fluid image to the said heavily loaded and calendered surface, placing said heavily loaded and calendered surface face to face with a sheet of hectographic carbon paper and applying uniform pressure to transfer the hectographic carbon ink from the carbon paper to the heavily loaded and calendered paper surface. 7

2. The method of preparing a paper master sheet suit,- able for hectographic printing by the spirit copying process said method including the steps of forming upon an ink-repellent ferro-gelatine printing surface an inkselective image of the matter to be printed, inking such ink-selective image with an adhesive lithographic ink, placing against said adhesive inked image a sheet of hectographic carbon paper and applying uniform pressure to transfer the hectographic ink from said carbon paper to the adhesive image, and pressing against said hectographic inked image a sheet of paper having a heavily loaded and calendered surface to transfer the hectographic ink from said image to the said heavily loaded and, calendered surface.

3. A method of preparing a master sheet suitable for hectographic printing by the spirit copying process, said method including the steps of preparing an undeveloped blue print of the matter to be copied, applying said 'un developed blue print to an ink-repellent ferro-gelatine printing surface to form anink-selective image of the matter to be printed, rolling on to said image surface an adhesive ink so as to adhere only to said ink selective image, pressing against said printing surface a sheet of material having a highly glazed surface to transfer an adhesiveink image to the said sheet material, removing said sheet material from the printing surface, applying a sheet of hectographic carbon paper to the adhesive image on the sheet material, and applying uniform'pressu're to transfer the hectograpnic carbon ink on to the adhesive image;

4. The method of preparing a master sheet suitable for hectographic printing by the spirit copying process including the steps of preparing an undeveloped blue print of the matter to be copied, applying said undeveloped blue print to an ink repellent ferro-gelatine printing sur face to form an ink selective image, rolling on to said printing surface an adhesive fluid material capable of attracting and retaining hectographic carbon transfer material, taking the adhesive images oif said printing surface on to sheets of material having a highly glazed surface such as chromo paper, interleaving said sheets bearing the adhesive images with sheets of hectographic carbon paper and applying uniform pressure to the stack of sheets to transfer the hectographic carbon transfer material from the carbon paper to the adhesive images.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 835,105 Flamant Nov. 6, 1906 853,863 Connolly May 14, 1907 1,386,995 Dorel Aug. 9, 1921 1,521,509 Dorel 'Dec. 30, 1924 1,631,524 Dufay June 7, 1927 1,795,378 Ritzerfeld Mar. 10, 193! 2,060,190 Foster Nov. 10, 1936 2,073,033 Szasz Mar. 9, 1937 2,095,075 Neidich Oct. 5, 1937 2,254,483 Hess et al. Sept. 2, 1941. 2,257,105 Champion Sept, 30, 1941 2,501,495 Carroll et al. Mar. 21, 1950 2,582,932 Lustbader Jan. 15, 1952 2,606,775 Newman Aug. 12, i952 FOREIGN PATENTS 649,158. Great Britain J an. 1952 

